Radiometric fingerprinting techniques rely on measuring and extracting device-specific imperfections of the transmitter RF circuitry embedded in the emitted signal, which manifest in form of negligible but distinguishable errors, e.g., in phase (e.g., [1]}) or frequency (e.g., [2]}). These imperfections are so individualized that even chipsets from the same manufacturer have different fingerprints [1]}, [4]}.
In Fig. REF , we demonstrate that the radiometric fingerprintThese fingerprints are extracted from non-linear phase errors derived from device-specific hardware imperfections [1]} of five identical phones with the same WiFi chipset are visually distinguishable. Thus, it is not surprising that these devices can be easily differentiated from one another with high success ratio (i.e., \( 96.5 \% \) ). Such degree of accuracy, on the one hand, reveals the potential of radiometric fingerprinting for achieving accurate authentication, thus enhancing security. On the other hand, it raises major privacy concerns since adversaries can locate/track devices using these unique fingerprints. Our work is motivated by the potential of radiometric fingerprinting in coping with security and privacy challenges.
